BOULANGER, RAVEL & DEBUSSY LA MER
Alexander Shelley
FEB 10 | 7:30
The 2024–25 Civic Orchestra season is generously sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation, which also provides major funding for the Civic Fellowship program.
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH SEASON
CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF CHICAGO
KEN-DAVID MASUR Principal Conductor
The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair
Monday, February 10, 2025, at 7:30
Alexander Shelley Conductor
BOULANGER D’un matin de printemps
DEBUSSY
La mer
From Dawn to Noon on the Sea Play of the Waves Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea
INTERMISSION
RAVEL
Piano Trio in A Minor (orch. Tortelier)
Moderate
Pantoum: Rather fast
Passacaille: Very broad—
Final: Animated
The 2024–25 Civic Orchestra season is generously sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation, which also provides major funding for the Civic Fellowship program.
Major support for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago is also provided by John and Leslie Burns; Robert and Joanne Crown Income Charitable Fund; Nancy Dehmlow; Leslie Fund, Inc.; Judy and Scott McCue; Leo and Catherine Miserendino; Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation; the George L. Shields Foundation, Inc.; the Maval Foundation; and Paul and Lisa Wiggin.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.
COMMENTS
by Phillip Huscher and Nicky Swett
LILI BOULANGER
Born August 21, 1893; Paris, France
Died March 15, 1918; Mezy, France
D’un matin de printemps
COMPOSED
1917, duet for violin and piano, later rescored for flute and piano 1918, orchestrated
FIRST PERFORMANCE date unknown
INSTRUMENTATION
2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes and english horn, 2 clarinets and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, triangle, cymbals, castanets, celesta, harp, strings
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 5 minutes
The very name Boulanger is as celebrated as any in French music. But that is largely because of Nadia, Lili’s younger sister, who became internationally famous as the greatly admired and often feared teacher of generations of American composers, from Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson to Elliott Carter and Philip Glass. (At the time, Glass called her a monster; many of her students loathed her notorious “Black Thursday” sessions when she publicly
criticized their work.) But it was Lili who was the more astonishing talent, and had she not died at the age of twenty-four, her name would surely appear with greater frequency in twentieth-century music books. “She was so gifted that even as a child of two-and-a-half, she sang all the time,” Nadia later remembered. “In fact, Fauré would willingly come and accompany her because she could sight-read a melody that she was not really capable of understanding but which she seemed to understand completely.”
The Boulangers were a family of musicians. “At home, everybody played music,” Nadia wrote. “Music was the beginning and central part of our existence.” Lili and Nadia’s mother and grandmother were both singers. Their father, Ernest, a composer, won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1835, seventy-eight years before his daughter Lili made international headlines as the first woman ever to receive the coveted prize. Lili was an invalid for most of her life, her immune system seriously weakened by bronchial pneumonia at the age of two. As a result, she studied music privately, isolated from the Paris Conservatory, which attracted
this page: Lili Boulanger, photographed by Henri Manuel (1874–1947), 1913 | opposite page: Sisters Nadia (1887–1979), left, and Lili Boulanger, 1913. Meurisse Press Agency, Bibliothèque nationale de France
all promising French composers and where Nadia herself worked with Fauré. But the strength, assurance, and originality of her music suggest that she was in no way compromised by her fragile health and limited travels. Like Proust, who began to write In Search of Lost Time in his cork-lined bedroom at the time Lili burst onto the music scene, she needed no more than pencil and paper to demonstrate her knowledge of life outside her window.
In 1916, when Lili was twenty-two years old, her doctor told her that she had just two years left. She threw herself into work on her opera, The Princess Maleine, based on a drama by Maeterlinck, which she wouldn’t live to finish. She composed D’un matin de
printemps (Of a Spring Morning) in the spring of 1917, with a new burst of energy following surgery, scoring it first for violin and piano and later reworking it for flute and piano. She orchestrated it in January 1918, as the second part of a diptych (the first is called D’un soir triste [Of a Sorrowful Evening]).
It’s one of her most outgoing and lively works (despite a menacing middle section), with dazzling orchestral colors and an imaginative harmonic plan. But above all, it’s a reminder of what might have been if this extraordinary, overlooked talent hadn’t been cut short at an even earlier age than the famous examples of Mozart and Schubert.
—Phillip Huscher
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Born August 22, 1862; Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Died March 25, 1918; Paris, France
La mer (Three Symphonic Sketches)
COMPOSED
1903–March 1905
FIRST PERFORMANCE
October 15, 1905; Paris, France
INSTRUMENTATION
2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes and english horn, 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets and 2 cornets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, glockenspiel, bass drum, two harps, celesta, strings
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME
26 minutes
Although Debussy’s parents once planned for him to become a sailor, La mer, subtitled Three Symphonic Sketches, proved to be his greatest seafaring adventure. Debussy’s childhood summers at Cannes left him with vivid memories of the sea, “worth more than reality,” as he put it at the time he was composing La mer some thirty years later. As an adult, Debussy seldom got his feet wet, preferring the seascapes available in painting and literature; La
mer was written in the mountains, where his “old friend the sea, always innumerable and beautiful,” was no closer than a memory.
Like the great British painter J.M.W. Turner, who stared at the sea for hours and then went inside to paint, Debussy worked from memory, occasionally turning for inspiration to a few other sources. Debussy first mentioned his new work in a letter dated September 12, 1903; the title he proposed for the first of the three symphonic sketches, Calm Sea around the Sanguinary Islands, was borrowed from a short story by Camille Mauclair published during the 1890s. When Debussy’s own score was printed, he insisted that the cover include a detail from The Great Wave off Kanagawa, the most celebrated print by the Japanese artist Hokusai, then enormously popular in France.
We also know that Debussy greatly admired Turner’s work. His richly atmospheric seascapes recorded the daily weather, the time of day, and even the most fleeting effects of wind and light in ways utterly new to painting, and they spoke directly to Debussy. (In
this page: Claude Debussy, photographed by Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, 1820–1910), 1905. Bibliothèque nationale de France | opposite page: Quillebeuf, at the Mouth of the Seine, oil on canvas, by J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851), 1833. Calouste Gulbenkian Museum Collection, Lisbon, Portugal
1903, when Debussy went to London to see a number of Turner’s paintings, he enjoyed the trip but hated actually crossing the channel.) The name Debussy finally gave to the first section of La mer, From Dawn to Noon on the Sea, might easily be that of a painting by Turner made sixty years earlier, for the two shared not only a love of subject but also of long, specific, evocative titles.
There’s something in Debussy’s first symphonic sketch much like a Turner painting of the sun rising over the sea. In their vastly different media, they both reveal those magical moments when sunlight begins to glow in near darkness and familiar objects emerge from the shadows. This was Turner’s favorite image—he even owned several houses from which he could watch, with undying fascination, the sun pierce the line separating sea and sky. Debussy’s achievement, though decades later than Turner’s, is no less radical, for it uses familiar language in truly fresh ways. From Dawn to Noon on the Sea can’t be heard as traditional program music, for it doesn’t tell a tale along a standard timeline (although Debussy’s friend Erik Satie reported that he “particularly liked the bit at a
quarter to eleven”). Nor can it be read as a piece of symphonic discourse, for it is organized without regard for conventional theme and development. Debussy’s audiences, like Turner’s before him, were baffled by a work that takes as its subject matter color, texture, and nuance.
Debussy’s second sketch, too, is all suggestion and shimmering surface, fascinated with sound for its own sake. Melodic line, rhythmic regularity, and the use of standard harmonic progressions are all shattered, gently but decisively, by the fluid play of the waves. The final Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea (another title so like Turner’s) captures the violence of two elements, air and water, as they collide. In the end, the sun breaks through the clouds. La mer repeatedly resists traditional analysis. “We must agree,” Debussy writes, “that the beauty of a work of art will always remain a mystery; in other words, we
can never be absolutely sure ‘how it’s made’.”
La mer was controversial even during rehearsals, when, as Debussy told Stravinsky, the violinists tied handkerchiefs to the tips of their bows in protest. The response at the premiere was mixed, though largely unfriendly. It is hard now to separate the reaction to this novel and challenging music from the current Parisian view of the composer himself, for during the two years he worked on La mer, Debussy moved in with Emma Bardac, the wife
of a local banker, leaving behind his wife Lily, who attempted suicide. Two weeks after the premiere of La mer, Bardac gave birth to Debussy’s child, Claude-Emma, later known as ChouChou. Debussy married Emma Bardac on January 20, 1908. The night before, he conducted an orchestra for the first time in public in a program that included La mer. This time, it was a spectacular success, though many of his friends still wouldn’t speak to him.
—Phillip Huscher
this page: The Great Wave off Kanagawa, woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), published ca. 1830–32. Cover art for the first edition of the full score of La mer, published by Durand and Sons in 1905. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City | opposite page: Maurice Ravel, photographed at the piano, 1912. Bibliothèque nationale de France
MAURICE RAVEL
Born March 7, 1875; Ciboure, France
Died December 28, 1937; Paris, France
Piano Trio in A Minor (Orchestrated by Yan Pascal Tortelier)
COMPOSED 1914; orchestrated 1992
FIRST PERFORMANCE 1993, London; The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Tortelier conducting (Tortelier orchestration)
INSTRUMENTATION
3 flutes (2nd and 3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd doubling english horn), 3 clarinets (2nd doubling E-flat clarinet and 3rd doubling B-flat clarinet), 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 2 harps, percussion (snare drum, bass drum, crotales, cymbals, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, xylophone, castanets, antique cymbals), celesta, strings
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 30 minutes
The violinist and conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier decided to make an orchestral arrangement of Maurice Ravel’s Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello after many years of performing the piece together with his father and sister. As he recalls in the liner notes for his 1992 recording of the transcription with the Ulster Orchestra, when he looked at Ravel’s score, “it became evident to me that there was
even more in this piano part than could be achieved by the keyboard.” This latent orchestral potential is something that Ravel himself identified in his works. In his own transcriptions of major solo keyboard pieces like Miroir, Le tombeau de Couperin, and the Valses nobles et sentimentales, he made manifest the great diversity of sounds, textures, and voicings that his piano writing implies. It is no wonder that since Ravel’s death, many composers and conductors have been inspired to create orchestral versions of others of his keyboard compositions.
Ravel wrote his dreamy, nostalgic trio in fits and starts over the course of 1914. By August, he began to work on it more consistently (“with the sureness and lucidity of a madman,” as he put it to his friend Maurice Delage) because he wanted to join the army and serve his country in World War I. Once he had completed the piece, he sent it to the publisher with quite careful instructions about how to prepare it. He claimed in a letter to another friend, “I have treated [my trio] as a posthumous work,” though he was quick to clarify, “That does not mean that I have lavished genius on it.” It is striking to think of the piece in this context: as music that he imagined could well have been among his final
compositions, since he was heading off to war.
In the wistful opening movement of the trio, the main melodies are divided into rhythmic divisions of 3 + 2 + 3, a grouping that conflicts with the pattern of four steady beats that often resonates from a bass voice of the ensemble. This irregular meter alludes to the folk music of the Basque region between Spain and France, where Ravel was born. As if to emphasize the pulsing tensions between voices, Tortelier’s arrangement revels in the extremes offered by an orchestra. At one point, the contrabassoon intones the opening theme, buzzing along below string solos. The climax of the movement becomes a glorious apotheosis, complete with crash cymbals.
Ravel modeled his swashbuckling second movement on the poetic form of the pantoum, in which the second and fourth lines of one stanza become the first and third of the next. The repetitions baked into the score offer Tortelier opportunities for a wide array of creative combinations of orchestral instruments.
The trio’s slow movement follows a baroque form in which a continuous set of variations unfolds above a repeated
bassline, or “ground.” Ravel’s ground is notably long; as it is passed among the players, different sections of the mournful line come in and out of focus. In his transcription, Tortelier only introduces the winds and brass at the point when the pattern breaks down so that the full orchestra can lay into a string of crying dissonances.
In the original trio, the sparkling, celebratory finale is full of special effects for the violin and cello, like harmonics and trills, features that naturally fit the sounds of certain instruments of the orchestra. Some have identified patriotic, militaristic allusions in the work’s closing fanfare. This quality is dramatically emphasized in Tortelier’s arrangement, in which the ending is trumpeted by a triumphant brass chorus and punctuated by the pounding of drums.
—Nicky Swett
Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Cellist, writer, and music researcher Nicky Swett is a PhD candidate and Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge. From 2016 to 2018, he was a member of the Civic Orchestra cello section and a Civic Fellow.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
PROFILES
Alexander Shelley Conductor
Alexander Shelley is known for the clarity and integrity of his interpretations and the creativity and vision of his programming. To date, he has spearheaded over forty major world premieres, highly praised cycles of symphonies by Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms, as well as operas, ballets, and innovative multimedia productions.
Since 2015 he has served as music director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and principal associate conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In April 2023, Shelley was appointed artistic and music director of Artis−Naples in Florida, providing leadership for the Naples Philharmonic and the entire multidisciplinary arts organization. The 2024–25 season is Shelley’s inaugural season in this position. In addition, the Pacific Symphony just announced the appointment of Alexander Shelley as its next artistic and music director. The initial five-year term begins in the 2026–27 season, with Shelley serving as music director designate from September 2025.
Additional highlights of this season include performances with the Seattle Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Colorado
Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, and the National Symphony of Ireland.
In September 2015, Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO), becoming the youngest music director in the orchestra’s history. Together, Shelley and NACO have toured Canada and Europe, performing at venues including Carnegie Hall, where they premiered Philip Glass’s Thirteenth Symphony.
Winner of the Echo Award and the German Entrepreneur Award, in April 2023, Shelley was conferred with the Cross of the Federal Order of Merit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in recognition of his services to music and culture.
He regularly gives informed and passionate pre- and post-concert talks on his programs, as well as numerous interviews and podcasts on the role of classical music in society. In Nuremberg alone, over the course of nine years as chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony, he hosted over half a million people at the annual Klassik Open Air concerts—Europe’s largest classical music event.
Born in London in October 1979 to celebrated concert pianists, Alexander Shelley studied cello and conducting in Germany and first gained widespread attention when he was unanimously awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition.
PHOTO BY CURTIS PERRY
Civic Orchestra of Chicago
The Civic Orchestra of Chicago is a training program of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Negaunee Music Institute that prepares young professionals for careers in orchestral music. It was founded during the 1919–20 season by Frederick Stock, the CSO’s second music director, as the Civic Music Student Orchestra, and for over a century, its members have gone on to secure positions in orchestras across the world, including over 160 Civic players who have joined the CSO. Each season, Civic members are given numerous performance opportunities and participate in rigorous orchestral training with its principal conductor, Ken-David Masur, distinguished guest conductors, and a faculty of coaches comprised of CSO members. Civic Orchestra musicians develop as exceptional orchestral players and engaged artists, cultivating their ability to succeed in the rapidly evolving music world.
The Civic Orchestra serves the community through its commitment to present free or low-cost concerts of the highest quality at Symphony
Center and in venues across Greater Chicago, including annual concerts at the South Shore Cultural Center and Fourth Presbyterian Church. The Civic Orchestra also performs at the annual Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition and Chicago Youth in Music Festival. Many Civic concerts can be heard locally on WFMT (98.7 FM), in addition to concert clips and smaller ensemble performances available on CSOtv and YouTube. Civic musicians expand their creative, professional, and artistic boundaries and reach diverse audiences through educational performances at Chicago public schools and a series of chamber concerts at various locations throughout the city.
To further expand its musician training, the Civic Orchestra launched the Civic Fellowship program in the 2013–14 season. Each year, up to twelve Civic members are designated as Civic Fellows and participate in intensive leadership training designed to build and diversify their creative and professional skills. The program’s curriculum has four modules: artistic planning, music education, social justice, and project management.
A gift to the Civic Orchestra of Chicago supports the rigorous training that members receive throughout the season, which includes coaching from musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and world-class conductors. Your gift today ensures that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association will continue to enrich, inspire, and transform lives through music.
Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Ken-David Masur Principal Conductor
The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair
VIOLINS
Herdis Gudmundsdottir
Ran Huo
Polina Borisova
Kimberly Bill
Isaac Champa
Isabelle Chin
Sean Hsi
Marian Antonette Mayuga*
Munire Mona Mierxiati
Matthew Musachio*
Tricia Park
Naomi Powers
Yebeen Seo
Keshav Srinivasan
Justine Jing Xin Teo
Harin Kang
Jonah Kartman
Darren Carter
Carlos Chacon
Jenny Choi
Adam Davis
Ebedit Fonseca
Rose Haselhorst
Hojung Christina Lee
Hobart Shi
Alec Tonno
Yulia Watanabe-Price
Lina Yamin*
Hannah Zhao
VIOLAS
Sam Sun
August DuBeau
Jason Butler
Elena Galentas
Judy Yu-Ting Huang
Xiaoxuan Liang
Carlos Lozano
Yat Chun Justin Pou
Mason Spencer*
Sava Velkoff*
Sanford Whatley
CELLOS
Brandon Xu
Lidanys Graterol
David Caplan
Sam Day
J Holzen*
Buianto Lkhasaranov
Nick Reeves
Somyong Shin
Santiago Uribe-Cardona
BASSES
J.T. O’Toole*
Hannah Novak
Walker Dean
Nick DeLaurentis+
Patrick Dugan
Andrew French+
Daniel W. Meyer
FLUTES
Cierra Hall
Alexander Day
Wiktoria Godawa
PICCOLOS
Wiktoria Godawa
Alexander Day
OBOES
Jonathan Kronheimer
Kyungyeon Hong
Will Stevens
ENGLISH HORN
Will Stevens
CLARINETS
Hae Sol (Amy) Hur*
Tyler Baillie
Elizabeth Kapitaniuk
BASS CLARINET
Tyler Baillie
BASSOONS
Peter Ecklund
William George
Alexander Lake
Ian Schneiderman
* Civic Orchestra Fellow + Civic Orchestra Alumni
CONTRABASSOON
Ian Schneiderman
HORNS
Adam Nelson
Fiona Chisholm+
Oscar Chung
Emmett Conway
Dena Levy
Adam Nelson
TRUMPETS
Sean Whitworth
Hamed Barbarji
Kai-Chun Chang
Abner Wong
TROMBONES
Dustin Nguyen
Arlo Hollander
BASS TROMBONE
Joe Maiocco
TUBA
Ben Poirot
TIMPANI
Tomas Leivestad
PERCUSSION
Alex Chao
Jordan Berini
Cameron Marquez*
Tae McLoughlin
Karel Zambrano
HARPS
Kari Novilla*
Natalie Man+
CELESTE
Wenlin Cheng
LIBRARIAN
Benjimen Neal
NEGAUNEE MUSIC INSTITUTE AT THE CSO
the board of the negaunee music institute
Leslie Burns Chair
Steve Shebik Vice Chair
John Aalbregtse
David Arch
James Borkman
Jacqui Cheng
Ricardo Cifuentes
Richard Colburn
Dunni Cosey Gay
Charles Emmons
Judy Feldman
Lori Julian
Toni-Marie Montgomery
Rumi Morales
Mimi Murley
Margo Oberman
Gerald Pauling
Harper Reed
Melissa Root
Amanda Sonneborn
Eugene Stark
Dan Sullivan
Ex Officio Members
Jeff Alexander
Jonathan McCormick
Vanessa Moss
negaunee music institute administration
Jonathan McCormick Managing Director
Katy Clusen Associate Director, CSO for Kids
Katherine Eaton Coordinator, School Partnerships
Carol Kelleher Assistant, CSO for Kids
Anna Perkins Orchestra Manager, Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Zhiqian Wu Operations Coordinator, Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Rachael Cohen Program Manager
Charles Jones Program Assistant
Frances Atkins Content Director
Kristin Tobin Designer & Print Production Manager
Petya Kaltchev Editor
civic orchestra artistic leadership
Ken-David Masur Principal Conductor
The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair
Coaches from the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra
Robert Chen Concertmaster
The Louis C. Sudler Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor
Baird Dodge Principal Second Violin
Teng Li Principal Viola
The Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair
Brant Taylor Cello
The Blickensderfer Family Chair
Alexander Hanna Principal Bass
The David and Mary Winton Green Principal Bass Chair
Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson Principal Flute
The Erika and Dietrich M. Gross Principal Flute Chair
William Welter Principal Oboe
Stephen Williamson Principal Clarinet
Keith Buncke Principal Bassoon
William Buchman Assistant Principal Bassoon
Mark Almond Principal Horn
Esteban Batallán Principal Trumpet
The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor
John Hagstrom Trumpet
The Bleck Family Chair
Tage Larsen Trumpet
Michael Mulcahy Trombone
Charles Vernon Bass Trombone
Gene Pokorny Principal Tuba
The Arnold Jacobs Principal Tuba Chair, endowed by Christine Querfeld
David Herbert Principal Timpani
The Clinton Family Fund Chair
Vadim Karpinos Assistant Principal Timpani, Percussion
Cynthia Yeh Principal Percussion
Justin Vibbard Principal Librarian
HONOR ROLL OF DONORS
Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Negaunee Music Institute connects individuals and communities to the extraordinary musical resources of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The following donors are gratefully acknowledged for making a gift in support of these educational and engagement programs. To make a gift or learn more, please contact Kevin Gupana, Associate Director of Giving, Educational and Engagement Programs, 312-294-3156.
$150,000 AND ABOVE
Lori Julian for The Julian Family Foundation
The Negaunee Foundation
$100,000–$149,999
Abbott Fund
Allstate Insurance Company
Megan and Steve Shebik
$75,000–$99,999
John Hart and Carol Prins
Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation
$50,000–$74,999
Anonymous
BMO
Robert and Joanne Crown Income Charitable Fund
Lloyd A. Fry Foundation
Judy and Scott McCue
Ms. Deborah K. McNeil
Polk Bros. Foundation
Michael and Linda Simon
Lisa and Paul Wiggin
$35,000–$49,999
Bowman C. Lingle Trust
National Endowment for the Arts
Margo and Michael Oberman
$25,000–$34,999
Anonymous
Carey and Brett August
John D. and Leslie Henner Burns
Crain-Maling Foundation
Nancy Dehmlow
Kinder Morgan
The Maval Foundation
Ms. Cecelia Samans
Shure Charitable Trust
Gene and Jean Stark
$20,000–$24,999
Anonymous
Mary and Lionel Go
Halasyamani/Davis Family
Illinois Arts Council Agency
Richard P. and Susan Kiphart Family
Mr. Philip Lumpkin
PNC
D. Elizabeth Price
Sandra and Earl Rusnak, Jr. †
Charles and M. R.
Shapiro Foundation
The George L. Shields Foundation, Inc.
Dr. Marylou Witz
$15,000–$19,999
Nancy A. Abshire
Mr. & Mrs. John Baldwin
Robert and Isabelle Bass Foundation, Inc.
Sue and Jim Colletti
Dr. Leo and Catherine Miserendino
$11,5000–$14,999
Barker Welfare Foundation
Mr. † & Mrs. David A. Donovan
Nancy and Bernard Dunkel
Benjamin J. Rosenthal Foundation
Ksenia A. and Peter Turula
$7,500–$11,499
Anonymous
Robert H. Baum and MaryBeth Kretz
Fred and Phoebe Boelter
The Buchanan Family Foundation
Mr. Lawrence Corry
Mrs. Carol Evans, in memory of Henry Evans
Ellen and Paul Gignilliat
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph B. Glossberg
Chet Gougis and Shelley Ochab
Mary Winton Green
The League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association
Mr. Glen Madeja and Ms. Janet Steidl
Ms. Susan Norvich
Ms. Emilysue Pinnell
Mary and Joseph Plauché
Ms. Liisa M. Thomas and Mr. Stephen L. Pratt
Theodore and Elisabeth Wachs
$4,500–$7,499
Dora J. and R. John Aalbregtse
Joseph Bartush
Charles H. and Bertha L. Boothroyd Foundation
Ann and Richard Carr
Harry F. and Elaine Chaddick Foundation
CIBC
Dr. Brenda A. Darrell and Mr. Paul S. Watford
Tarek and Ann Fadel
Ms. Dawn E. Helwig
Mr. James Kastenholz and Ms. Jennifer Steans
Dr. June Koizumi
Leoni and Bill McVey
Jim and Ginger Meyer
Stephen and Rumi Morales
Drs. Robert and Marsha Mrtek
David † and Dolores Nelson
The Osprey Foundation
Lee Ann and Savit Pirl
Robert J. Richards and Barbara A. Richards
Dr. Scholl Foundation
Dr. & Mrs. R. Solaro
Ms. Joanne C. Tremulis
Laura and Terrence Truax
Mr. Paul R. Wiggin
$3,500–$4,499
Anonymous (2)
Mr. & Mrs. Paul Clusen
Mr. Clinton J. Ecker and Ms. Jacqui Cheng
Charles and Carol Emmons
Judith E. Feldman
Ms. Mirjana Martich and Mr. Zoran Lazarevic
Mr. Bruce Oltman
$2,500–$3,499
Anonymous
David and Suzanne Arch
Adam Bossov
Ms. Danolda Brennan
Ms. Rosalind Britton
Mr. Ray Capitanini
Lisa Chessare
Mr. Ricardo Cifuentes
Patricia A. Clickener
Mr. & Mrs. Dwight Decker
David and Janet Fox
Mr. † & Mrs. Robert Heidrick
William B. Hinchliff
Michael and Leigh Huston
Dr. Victoria Ingram and Dr. Paul Navin
Ronald E. Jacquart
Ms. Stephanie Jones
Dr. Linda Novak
Mr. & Mrs. Jeffery Piper
Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Racker
Erik and Nelleke Roffelsen
Mr. David Sandfort
Gerald and Barbara Schultz
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Scorza
Jessie Shih and Johnson Ho
Carol S. Sonnenschein
Mr. † & Mrs. Hugo Sonnenschein
Mr. Peter Vale
Mr. Kenneth Witkowski
Ms. Camille Zientek
ENDOWED FUNDS
Anonymous (5)
Dr. & Mrs. Bernard H. Adelson Fund
Marjorie Blum-Kovler Youth Concert Fund
Civic Orchestra Chamber Access Fund
The Davee Foundation
Frank Family Fund
Kelli Gardner Youth Education Endowment Fund
Jennifer Amler Goldstein Fund, in memory of Thomas M. Goldstein
Mary Winton Green
John Hart and Carol Prins Fund for Access
William Randolph Hearst Foundation Fund
Richard A. Heise
Julian Family Foundation Fund
The Kapnick Family
Lester B. Knight Charitable Trust
Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Chair Fund
The Malott Family School Concerts Fund
Eloise W. Martin Endowed Funds
Murley Family Fund
The Negaunee Foundation
Margo and Michael Oberman Community Access Fund
Nancy Ranney and Family and Friends
Helen Regenstein Guest Conductor Fund
Edward F. Schmidt Family Fund
Shebik Community Engagement Programs Fund
The Wallace Foundation
Zell Family Foundation
CIVIC ORCHESTRA OF CHICAGO SCHOLARSHIPS
Members of the Civic Orchestra receive an annual stipend to help offset some of their living expenses during their training in Civic. The following donors have generously helped to support these stipends for the 2024–25 season.
Ten Civic members participate in the Civic Fellowship program, a rigorous artistic and professional development curriculum that supplements their membership in the full orchestra. Major funding for this program is generously provided by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation
Nancy A. Abshire
Mason Spencer,* viola
Dr. & Mrs. Bernard H.
Adelson Fund
Elena Galentas, viola
Fred and Phoebe Boelter
Daniel W. Meyer, bass
Rosalind Britton^
Sam Day, cello
John and Leslie Burns**
Layan Atieh, horn
Will Stevens, oboe
Robert and Joanne Crown
Income Charitable Fund
Charley Gillette, percussion
Kyungyeon Hong, oboe
Buianto Lkhasaranov, cello
Matthew Musachio,* violin
Sam Sun, viola
Mr. † & Mrs. David Donovan
Bennett Norris, bass
Charles and Carol Emmons^
Will Stevens, oboe
David and Janet Fox^
Carlos Lozano Sanchez, viola
Ellen and Paul Gignilliat
Tiffany Kung, bass
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph B. Glossberg
Hannah Novak, bass
Richard and Alice Godfrey
Darren Carter, violin
Jennifer Amler Goldstein Fund, in memory of Thomas M. Goldstein
Alex Chao, percussion
Chet Gougis and Shelley Ochab
Nick Reeves, cello
Mary Winton Green
Walker Dean, bass
Jane Redmond Haliday Chair
Munire Mona Mierxiati, violin
Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation
David Caplan, cello
Lina Yamin,* violin
League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association
Kari Novilla, harp
Leslie Fund, Inc.
Cameron Marquez,* percussion
Lester B. Knight Charitable Trust
Daniel Fletcher, flute
Elise Maas, violin
Tricia Park, violin
Jocelyn Yeh, cello
Brandon Xu, cello
Mr. Philip Lumpkin
JT O’Toole,* bass
Mr. Glen Madeja and Ms. Janet Steidl
Herdis Gudmundsdottir, violin
Maval Foundation
Mark Morris, horn
Dustin Nguyen, trombone
Sean Whitworth, trumpet
Judy and Scott McCue
Cierra Hall, flute
Dr. Leo and Catherine Miserendino^
Lidanys Graterol, cello
Elizabeth Kapitaniuk, clarinet
Sava Velkoff,* viola
Ms. Susan Norvich
Nick Collins, tuba
Benjamin Poirot, tuba
Margo and Michael Oberman
Hamed Barbarji, trumpet
Bruce Oltman and Bonnie McGrath^
Alexander Wallack, bass
Sandra and Earl Rusnak, Jr. †
Loren Ho, horn
Barbara and Barre Seid Foundation
Alex Ertl, trombone
Joe Maiocco, bass trombone
The George L. Shields Foundation, Inc.
Asuncion Martinez, horn
Keshav Srinisvan, violin
Derrick Ware, viola
Dr. & Mrs. R. Solaro^
Sanford Whatley, viola
David W. and Lucille G. Stotter Chair
Ran Huo, violin
Ruth Miner Swislow Charitable Fund
Kimberly Bill, violin
Ksenia A. and Peter Turula
Abner Wong, trumpet
Lois and James Vrhel
Endowment Fund
Broner McCoy, bass
Dr. Marylou Witz
Marian Mayuga,* violin
Theodore and Elisabeth Wachs^
Amy Hur,* clarinet
Paul and Lisa Wiggin
Layan Atieh, horn
Tomas Leivestad, timpani
Anonymous Hojung Lee, violin
Anonymous J Holzen,* cello
Anonymous^
Carlos Chacon, violin
† Deceased * Civic Orchestra Fellow ^ Partial Sponsor ** Civic Administrative Fellowship Sponsor
Italics indicate individual or family involvement as part of the Trustees or Governing Members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association.
Gifts listed as of December 2024
Showcasing Education & Community Engagement at the CSO
MAR 17
Be inspired by the musicians learning, growing, and serving Chicago through the programs produced by the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Enjoy a showcase of extraordinary performances by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, musicians from the CSO, Percussion Scholarship Program students, and Young Artists Competition winner Jaden TeagueNúñez. Plus, hear works from the Notes for Peace program and Young Composers Initiative. Transform lives by supporting these vital education and community engagement activities.